The Origins of Eve
by Sami S
Summary: Adam and the team get a visit from a young woman claiming to be Adam's daughter.


Disclaimer: All Mutant X characters do not belong to me. Eve is the only original character that belongs to me. No copyright infringement is intended.  
  
The Origins of Eve  
  
One  
  
"Everything seems secure," Brennan called out as he walked down the stairs. Adam looked up from his inspection of the computer systems of the latest Underground safehouse. It seemed as if the number of safehouses grew day by day. Each one had to be checked and double-checked for security and at the same time for the comfort of those that had to meet and reside there.  
  
"Good, good that means that we are almost done here. Jessica?" Adam turned around to face a tall young woman with bright red hair cut short in a pixie cut. "How are things on your end?"  
  
"Everything looks fine Adam, just a little fine tuning and we should be all set," she said as she gave him a confident smile. She turned back to the computer panel she was working on: her laser vision made the last in a series of delicate weldings. Adam smiled and turned back to Brennan.  
  
"Wasn't Eric with you?"  
  
"Yeah but he said he needed to take a walk, sort of prowl around," Brennan shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "You know how ferals are."  
  
  
  
  
  
The fresh air seemed to always make Eric feel better. Indoors he always felt like a caged animal. Pacing around the perimeter became a habit, almost a daily routine for him. It also made him feel better to find things exactly the way he had left them the day before. What he wasn't counting on was that today he would find something more out of the ordinary than he realized. Eric was walking the farthest edge of the safehouse perimeter when he heard a sound. It started out small but grew louder as whoever it was approached him.  
  
The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end and he crouched as a growl rose in his throat. He started to spring until he saw who it was. Standing before him was a tall beautifully built young woman. She was slender with curves in all the right places but athletic with the best muscle tone Eric had ever seen.  
  
She had long thick wavy hair that was dark brown and hung just below her shoulders and it was a sharp but pleasant contrast to her smooth pale skin. The features of her face were delicately shaped and she had a slightly pointed chin and small ears giving her an elfin look. Her eyes though caught his attention almost immediately. They were large with thick lashes and a brilliant glowing amber. 'Eyes like that,' he thought. 'They could glow in the dark.'  
  
She walked slowly and cautiously towards him, her step smooth and graceful. She was wearing dark blue jeans that were almost black, a dark maroon halter-top, and black leather boots. She gave him a shy smile as she got closer. At the last minute Eric finally regained his composure, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something slightly familiar looking about her.  
  
"Who are you? You shouldn't really be here," he said as he stood up straight. She frowned slightly looking puzzled.  
  
"Was I wrong to assume that this was an Underground safehouse?" Her voice was soft and it had a slight lilt to it giving it a musical quality. He stared at her cautiously.  
  
"You're a New Mutant?" Her face suddenly broke out in a smile of relief.  
  
"Yes I am, are you?"  
  
"Yeah, you definitely came to the right place. So," he moved closer to her. "What are your powers?" She chuckled.  
  
"You tell me yours first."  
  
"I'm feral, strong in the areas of animal instinct," he gave her a sideways smile. She smiled back at him in the same way. "Your turn."  
  
"You got to come closer, it's kind of stupid and I don't really want to say it out loud."  
  
He moved in closer and she leaned into him. Next thing Eric knew he was lying flat on his back. She had landed a backhanded punch to the side of his head aiming squarely for his temple. The blow was so strong he had felt himself fly through the air for a couple of feet. As he landed on the ground he felt the air get pushed out of his lungs. The next thing he knew she was right on top of him pinning him to the ground.  
  
"You wanted to know what my power was?" She yanked back a part of his shirt to reveal bare skin. "I'll show you what I can do."  
  
She placed her hand onto his skin. The strangest sensation went through his body. A kind of thrumming vibration that started at the center of his chest. It spread through his body and made contact with the spot that her hand was touching. It lasted for a couple of seconds and as she kept contact with him her body stiffened slightly and her face tilted upward. She lifted her hand and looked down at him. Her amber eyes were replaced by the yellow slits of a feral. A growl rose from her throat and she punched him one last time plunging him into darkness.  
  
  
  
Her eyes still yellow slits, she stood up from the slumped form of the New Mutant. 'That was almost too easy,' she thought. 'I hope the next set are more of a challenge.' She crouched low to the ground and made her stealthy creep to the safehouse. She saw a car parked in front of the building and knew it belonged to the two members of Mutant X that had come there to inspect their security.  
  
She watched and waited as two figures walked out of the building. The younger man was tall and well built with dark hair. She knew from her memorization of their profiles that that was Brennan Mulwray, an electrical New Mutant with the ability to generate and throw electricity. The other one was Adam, a man she knew of all to well. Now was her chance.  
  
  
  
  
  
"With things going so smoothly lately, I almost wish that something would happen," Brennan said with a sigh. Adam chuckled then turned to fact him.  
  
"Be careful what you wish for. Besides, it's a nice change from having explosions every five minutes."  
  
"Yeah but we haven't had any sort of slash with the GSA for almost a month now. It almost makes you worried about what they're planning."  
  
"Which is why we should always be ready for any situation. You never know what they might throw at us. Eric should be out here, I wonder where he is," Adam scanned the surrounding area. Brennan shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Jessica said that he does it all the time, almost like clockwork. I wouldn't . . ."  
  
Suddenly a low growl emanated from behind them. All they saw was a blur and a great force crashed into Adam knocking the wind from him. Whoever it was hit him so hard that he flew several feet through the air. A foot lashed out and hit Brennan in the stomach knocking him back and stunning him for a few seconds. As he widened his stance into a fighting crouch he got a good look at his attacker.  
  
She was a tall dark haired woman around his age. Under normal circumstances this would have been the type of girl he would hit on. The first things he noticed were her eyes. They were a burning amber, and he watched them change from amber to yellow slits and back, in an instant. She wasted no time with niceties. Her right arm lashed our in a back handed punch. He managed to get control of his shock and successfully blocked it and grabbed hold of her arm.  
  
Brennan let out a roundhouse kick with his right foot as he let go of her arm. It landed squarely into her side and she doubled over. He looked over to where Adam had landed and saw him struggling to get up. Brennan looked back to their fallen assailant and stepped closer to get a better look at her. Suddenly she snarled again and leaped up and pounced on Brennan landing on his chest. She pinned him to the ground as he fought to regain his breath.  
  
She reached out and grabbed hold of the side of his neck. At first Brennan though that she was going to choke him but then he felt a strange thrumming from the center of his chest. It spread to his neck and he felt his eyes roll back in his skull. It felt as if the electricity of his body was being pulled out from his body. The girl never let go of her grip but he felt her body stiffen above him.  
  
When she broke her grip the reaction was almost explosive. She fell back and tumbled to the ground. He lay on his back, his breath coming out in almost violent gasps. By the time he regained his sight, she was standing over him. She brought her two hands together and as they parted electricity crackled between them. Brennan looked up and noticed that her eyes never changed, they stayed the same burning amber as they started.  
  
"What the hell?!" He exclaimed. Brennan struggled to his feet but was thrown back as she threw the ball of electricity and hit him squarely in the chest.  
  
  
  
  
  
Adam struggled to his feet and was just in time to see Brennan get hit by an electrical burst. He got to his feet as quickly as he could and started towards Brennan's fallen form. His mind was already reeling from all the different questions he was asking himself. How had this person found the safehouse? Was she working for the GSA? How the hell did her powers change so quickly from being feral to having Brennan's electrical abilities? As he got close, he prepared to defend himself.  
  
She whirled around to face him and crouched down into a fighting stance. Her amber eyes blazed out at him. Suddenly, without warning, she lashed out at him with her right foot, he was prepared for it this time, though, and blocked the kick. Adam punched out at her with his right arm. She blocked the move almost casually. It seemed like every move he made, she matched it and vice versa.  
  
She kicked out with her left foot in a move identical to the one she had made originally and again he blocked it. This time she pivoted and twisted her right foot and the blow landed in Adam's ribcage and it knocked him to the ground again. This time it took him a while to regain his breath. The blow was so strong it left his head whirling and his lungs screaming out in pain. He lay on the ground clutching his side and gasping in pain.  
  
He looked up and found the girl standing above him. Her left hand was crackling with energy, but she didn't shoot out at him. Instead, she pulled something out of her pocket with her left hand. It was a computer disk, and she tossed it onto Adam. She spoke for the first time.  
  
"Follow those instructions to the letter. Or else you'll miss out on all the fun," she said and walked away. Her voice was cold and even, almost monotone. It ran a chill down Adam's spine as he struggled to get back onto his feet for a second time.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Not her," Brennan said again for what seemed the millionth time. He and Adam had made it to Sanctuary in one piece for the most part. He was going over the New Mutant database with Jesse and Emma to see if they could get a name for the face that he and Adam had seen. It didn't look promising though. They had gone through the ferals and then the elementals to cover bother grounds and then the rest of the database, but they hadn't had a hit yet.  
  
While they did that, Shalimar and Adam were going at the search in a different way. Adam described the woman they had seen and created a composite drawing of her face. When he was done, Shalimar would run the picture through a wider database to see if they would get any hits that way. Again, it really didn't look promising.  
  
"It's almost like she's a ghost," Jesse remarked as they went through the New Mutant database one more time.  
  
"Well, if we could figure out what her powers were, it would go a lot faster," Emma sighed and sat back in her chair.  
  
"Something about her looked really familiar, I can't quite put my finger on it, but I swear I've seen her before," Brennan was pacing in front of the computer screen. Jesse and Emma exchanged looks. They hadn't seen him this worked up for a long time. They hoped that it wouldn't lead to another absorption like the last time.  
  
"We're finished here," Adam called from the lower level. The three of them walked downstairs to face the computer image of the attacker. Brennan was impressed with the imaging.  
  
"That's her all right," he said staring at the picture. That weird feeling in the back of his mind wouldn't go away.  
  
"Now all we have to do is run it through our database," Shalimar punched a control and the computer did its work.  
  
"How long will it take?" Emma asked.  
  
"It'll be few minutes, that is if it finds anything. Did you guys have any luck?" Adam turned to the trio.  
  
"No, we've pretty much gone through the New Mutant database twice and Brennan hasn't seen anyone matching her description," Jesse answered.  
  
"What about the disk she gave you?" Shalimar asked turning to Adam. He pulled the disk out of his pocket and held it up for everyone to see.  
  
"She told me to follow the instructions on the disk. I haven't tried accessing it yet, I'm almost afraid to. Who knows what could be on this disk, it could be a trap, a virus of some sort or a tracking device."  
  
"Couldn't you scan it for that kind of thing?" Emma shrugged her shoulders. Adam frowned.  
  
"I could, but I want to see what the search comes up with first. I want to know who we're dealing with."  
  
  
  
  
  
Mason Eckhart stood in his office overlooking his base of operations. The floor to ceiling glass windows gave him an expansive view of all that was going on below him. He always liked to keep an eye on everything that went on in the GSA. If it was one thing that he prided himself on it was his ability to always know what was going on in his world. And it was his world, a world he had worked very hard to create. Every security problem was handled immediately. Almost anyway, the continuous threat by Adam's group of New Mutants was always a constant menace. Adam also thought of every security precaution as well, it was a quality that kept him going for so long. This time, however, there was an ace up Eckhart's sleeve that Adam would never have thought of in his wildest dreams. And that ace was walking into his office right now.  
  
The same dark haired woman who had attacked Brennan and Adam earlier stood in front of Eckhart, her arms crossed. Her expression was one of a cold neutral mask, devoid of emotion. Sometimes he wondered if he had trained her to be too devoid of emotion. But as long as she remained loyal to him and got the job done he really didn't care. In the long run, he had big plans for this young woman.  
  
"Did you give it to him?" Eckhart asked almost casually. She uncrossed her arms.  
  
"Yes, I also had a little fun," she didn't even crack a smile. The statement was said with such a deadpan look that it was hard for Eckhart to interpret what she had said. He had known her since she was born and he still found that she was constantly surprising him and sometimes scaring him as well.  
  
"Good, then let's hope that he takes the bait and does as he is instructed."  
  
"Adam does nothing that he is instructed, he's the one giving the instructions. What makes you think that he'll even come?" She said. She walked in her eerily graceful way towards the glass window to stand next to him and surveyed the scene below. Eckhart smiled and faced her.  
  
"I'm guessing you gave him quite a show. His curiosity will get the better of him. It's the only way to find out more about you my dear, and when he gets his fill he's going to have a whole new set of problems to deal with."  
  
  
  
  
  
"It's a map," Adam said frowning. The search of the database had found nothing, with didn't surprise him at all considering the other search had turned up nothing. He had also found that he could download the disk into the imager. It created a 3D map that gave a specific location and time.  
  
"Why would she give you a map?" Emma asked.  
  
"It hasn't finished downloading. She said to follow the instructions to the letter, which means nothing."  
  
"Not like we can really trust someone who made that kind of entrance," Jesse said pacing.  
  
"Here it is," Adam punched another key and a list of written instructions appeared along with the map. His expression set into a grim visage. "A meeting has been requested."  
  
"One of those come alone and unarmed things?" Brennan remarked sarcastically.  
  
"Actually it looks like one of those come armed and with a group kinds of things. A minimum of two other people other than you Adam. They're asking for you specifically," Shalimar turned to Adam and he sighed.  
  
"It has Genomex written all over it. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that she was a new lieutenant of Eckhart's."  
  
"Yeah but why didn't she show up in our search of the database? You would think that, being a New Mutant, she would be in the database," Emma said with a frown.  
  
"That's what's worrying me. Plus her powers are like nothing I've ever seen before."  
  
"I'll say, at first it felt like she was sucking the life out of me. Yet she started out as a feral and ended up with powers like mine. How the hell did she do that?" Brennan said pacing. "I still say that she looks familiar. I know that I've seen . . ." His voice trailed off. With sudden conviction he headed to the second level and sat in front of the computer. Shalimar and Emma exchanged smiles.  
  
Adam's concentration was totally on the map and the situation before him. There was a delicate balance between going into a situation prepared, and walking into a trap. His instincts told him it was a trap, but the circumstances surrounding the woman's powers intrigued him. Her ability to change powers rang in a familiar note in his head, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it . . .  
  
"Found her!" Brennan's exclamation shocked everyone out of whatever reverie they had been in. They moved as a group to the upper level and clustered around the computer monitor.  
  
What they saw was the database of photo's taken of the GSA. At first Adam didn't see her, but when Brennan changed to another picture he saw her. It was taken from a still shot of a security camera. Adam recognized it as being from one of the old safehouses. It had been Ruby's bookstore, and it was believed that Ruby had given away both its location and a secondary safehouse when the GSA had captured him.  
  
"It looks like she's leading the team that trashed the bookstore. I do remember her, she was hanging around the shadows in Eckhart's office when they captured me," Brennan tapped at the keyboard and began flipping through more pictures.  
  
"Now that I've seen her, I recognize her too. I think I've seen her a couple of times when we've clashed with the GSA. She was always in the background," Jesse stared intently at the monitor.  
  
With each picture they saw her in she was always in the background, always present. As he searched his own memory, he could recall instances where he had seen her as well. As he looked to Emma and Shalimar, he saw recognition on their faces as well. It was strange how it never occurred to them to be suspicious of the fact that this one person kept popping up like that. The question now was why had Eckhart suddenly wanted her presence to be known.  
  
"So, we going to this meeting?" Brennan gazed up at Adam, a smile playing across his lips.  
  
  
  
  
  
Two hours later Adam, Jesse, and Shalimar were heading to the location indicated on the map. Adam had downloaded the map and the rest of its instructions onto his handheld. There had been much debate over who would go with him, most of the arguments coming from Brennan. He wanted a rematch with the girl, but Adam didn't want Brennan to come in contact with her powers again. He had no idea what kind of after affects they would have.  
  
After finally convincing him of this fact they left in the Double Helix. The specified are was an abandoned parking lot of an old crumbling building. They touched down in a large grassy area beyond the parking lot. They left it cloaked in case they had to make a hasty exit. The lot was empty when they arrived.  
  
"Where is everyone?" Shalimar asked after a few minutes.  
  
"This is the appointed time," Adam's comment was lost when a GSA issue vehicle pulled into the parking lot.  
  
"Fashionably late," Jesse remarked sarcastically. All the doors opened and five people poured out. One of them was recognized as Eckhart, and the only female agent was recognized as the dark haired woman who had attacked Adam and Brennan. The others were the characteristic GS agents dressed in their plain dark suits.  
  
With the woman on his right, Eckhart walked over to face Adam. The rest of the GS agents flanked him just as Jesse and Shalimar did the same for Adam. Jesse stood in front of the woman. She was eerily beautiful and when he looked into her eyes he felt like he was being pulled in. Eckhart gave Adam an amused smile before he spoke.  
  
"Hello Adam, I wish I could say that I'm surprised to see you, but I'm not."  
  
"You extended an invitation, so I came," Adam's face was calm and unreadable. The smile stayed on Eckhart's face but it didn't reach his eyes.  
  
"Well I think that we both know why you're here," he placed a hand on the woman's elbow.  
  
"Yes, you've conveniently brought her to my attention. For what reason is why I've come to find out."  
  
"The explanation may come as a bit of a shock to you, but the shock was well intended. I don't know if you recall or not, about twenty seven years ago when Genomex employees were required to give genetic samples?" The look on Eckhart's face became ominous. Adam frowned at the mention of that event.  
  
"I do. In order to provide a wide grange of variety in our genetic library, many of the scientists volunteered," Adam answered slowly. Eckhart was looking more and more pleased with himself.  
  
"Yes, if fact you gave a sample to the 'library' as you call it. I used that sample as a bit of insurance. You've always had shaky loyalties to some of Genomex's projects. I wasn't sure it would be necessary, but better safe than sorry."  
  
"What are you getting at Mason?" Adam's frown deepened.  
  
"What I'm driving at is that I used the genetic sample in a little project of my own. I created her," Eckhart gestured to the woman. Adam's composure broke slightly as shock showed in his eyes. Shalimar, her eyes wide, stared more intently at the woman suddenly realizing where the resemblance came from. Jesse turned to Adam waiting for his reaction.  
  
"She's your daughter Adam. There were several ironies that came from her birth. She was created using the techniques and technologies you created and deemed to dangerous. I also took the irresistible biblical irony of choosing a name for her. I named her Eve, if you ask me it fits. Eve was created from you Adam, just like your namesakes in the book of Genesis."  
  
All through this Eve stood by Eckhart's side in stony silence. Her stance was loose and her arms remained casually at her sides. As the shocked silence settled in the air, Adam regained his composure. For the first time he was able to take his first steady look at her. She met his gaze and they were locked like that for several moments.  
  
Her amber eyes mirrored his in color, but were strangely more intense burning with an emotion he thought was hatred toward him. Her face was stripped of emotion and sent another chill down his spine. Studying her features, he found that they also mirrored his own, but in more subtle ways. It was almost an eerie affect. At the same time a voice in the back of his mind told him that that was what was expected when comparing children to their parents. Of course child was not a word he would use to describe her. He tore his gaze away from her and back to Eckhart.  
  
"Where's the proof Mason?" Adam demanded his voice strong and clear. Eckhart gave him an incredulous look.  
  
"The proof is standing right in front of you Adam. What more do you need?"  
  
"I need physical proof, Mason. Something I can see and substantiate."  
  
"Always the true scientist. You'll get your proof soon enough."  
  
Eckhart turned to Eve who returned his gaze. He gave her a slight nod of his head and walked to the car and it drove away. At that signal, she nodded to the three other agents and then set her sights on Jesse. 'Let the games begin,' Jesse thought as he and Eve squared off. 


End file.
